Over the past 35 years, Bicycle Accident Attorney Christopher Burns has successfully handled hundreds of bike, pedestrian and cycling accident cases.
Frustrated with the lack of website inquiries and his website’s search engine “invisibility”, Bicycle Accident Attorney Chris Burns turned to Onboard Creative for help. Conversion rates for his law firm’s website weren’t meeting expectations, especially when factoring in all the time, energy, and associated website costs.
I have come to trust Jon Livingston and his company, Onboard Creative, over an extensive relationship since 2011. Jon has been reliable, creative, technologically savvy, and responsive. My website is a critical component of my law practice and business model, which has only been successful with Jon as part of my team.
Christopher Burns - Bicycle Accident Attorney
While auditing Chris’ website, many issues quickly became apparent. Upon first glance, the site was presentable. Still, a closer look revealed several usability and navigation issues, a lack of prominent call to actions, and website copy that lacked personality, a common problem among law firm websites.
The underlying code was a wreck preventing the website from performing well in the search engines. Stuffed keyword phrases were here and there. Code hierarchy was non-existent, the URL structure was hard to decipher, images were huge (causing the site to be slow and devalued by Google), and proper keywords weren’t optimized. Code roadblocks littered across the site, halting search engines from properly indexing the content. On top of that, the previous site used two content management systems, WordPress and Joomla! And to top that, the WordPress installation was outdated and hacked. Eek!
The report we provided confirmed Chris’ suspicion that he needed help. Since fixing the existing website would have been like climbing the Alpe d’Huez, Chris hired us to redesign his law firm’s website from scratch. Armed with several objectives, we went to work.
As we learned more about Chris’ law practice and his singular focus of being a bicycle accident lawyer, it became clear there was a unique branding opportunity. His passion for cycling (he has been riding six or seven days a week for over 25 years!), advocacy of the sport, and cycling accidents were all great points to highlight.
Chris’ traditional image in a dress suit was exchanged for one of him in a cycling jersey to reflect his passion, understanding, and advocacy. From the get-go, this visual cue sets him apart from other attorneys and shows that his sole focus is handling bicycle wreck victims. We also believe it helps relieve negative stereotypes; some tend to think lawyers don’t necessarily understand their circumstances. This nontraditional approach is tied right into the updated site copy that is more personable.
As another significant change, strong call to actions are throughout the site.
Chris is an expert in his field so featuring his skills and experience was critical to properly showcasing his talent. The main navigation and supporting pages answer common questions such as “How can I help?” and “What to do after a Bicycle Crash?”. A supporting blog allows Chris to share his expertise easily and regularly.
Over the years, Chris’ bicycle accidents now take center stage as he can relate to future clients’ victims. We felt this was an excellent opportunity to connect with his visitors. He’s not the average attorney, but someone who knows firsthand the pain and frustration of being victimized in a bicycle accident.
Like many companies that contact us needing help to increase their website’s leads and sales, Chris’ former website wasn’t properly optimized for search engines. Guesses were made as to what his target audience was searching for, and it made a considerable discrepancy in site traffic. While doing well in search engines is a lot more than selecting the right key phrases, limiting it from the start doesn’t help.
Although it’s a new website, search engine rankings for targeted keywords have already improved. We look forward to tracking results, making improvement tweaks, and grabbing the Maillot Jaune from competitors.
To help with updates, an integrated content management system was added to the website. Chris can now easily create pages, add featured settlements and verdicts, and post to the blog. Gone are the days of waiting for the “web-guy” or having in-house help to make updates.
SEO Audit, Requirements development, research and competitive audit, information architecture, user interface design, CSS/XHTML template development, CMS integration, search engine optimization, blog consulting, SEO training, search marketing, and web hosting.
Feel free to email or call us (904-686-0056) to discuss how we can improve your website's conversion rates and search engine rankings.
